Related to: [ Magifaunia — Canterlot Zoo of Magical Creatures ]


This is just a few of the staff employed by Magifaunia; not the highest positions necessarily, just the ones I found the most interesting.

Fun fact: Some of these are actually really old/modified versions of really old characters! I never posted them back then, but I found them on an old computer and uploaded them to stash. You might recognize Temperate Temperament (Albeit a lot happier then lol) and Salamandra and Teddy is Fenixflight and UnnamnedVet with design overhauls. And, of course, there's non-hinny Dust Bunny


Salamandra
Senior Keeper of "Critters and Crawlers"

(Fair warning: Her backstory features a pet being killed)
Salamandra was born to a mainly-unicorn family who cared about appearances a great deal --her father is a hooficurist, her uncle is a model, her aunt works in a famous fashion boutique, and her two cousins are mane stylists. They expected her to follow in a similar vein.. only to be shocked beyond belief when she'd rather dig around in the dirt for worms or splash around in riverbanks for frogs. When she actually got her Cutie Mark in caring for salamanders, her dad nearly fainted. He could have accepted a lot of other animals; ogs and cats can be groomed and bred to be beautiful, parrots are at least pretty and colorful --even fish can be used to accent a rooms aesthetic nicely. But jis daughter's destiny is to work with lizards?? ("Amphibians!" she yells at him). He still tried to get her to be somewhat related to the family "brand" by enrolling her in pet grooming courses --see, it's animals and beauty! Maybe not lizards ("Amphibians!"), but surely her mark is more general? Maybe she's mistaken about how specific it is? She was not amused, and got herself a pet salamander, named Sally, in secret. Things went well for about a year, until her father went into her room unannounced and saw her holding Sally. Argument ensued, ending with her father attempting to grab Sally with his magic. The salamander got scared and lit itself on fire, causing a chain reaction of Salamandras hoof being badly burnt and her father trowing it against a wall in a panic. After that, she was done. She buried Sally, changed her name to Salamandra and moved in with her aunt in Canterlot. (She still hasn't spoken with her father again since then.) Her aunt was confused by her interests, but very supportive nonetheless. Her welcome-home gift to Sal was newt, which Sal named Nelly. While living with her aunt, Salamandra finished her secondary school education and a degree in zoology at Canterlot university. She didn't want to burden her aunt too much though, so she worked as a cashier during the time as well to contribute to the bills --no matter that her aunt kept telling her to just focus on her studies. After finishing collage she finally could start on her dream of working with amphibians, getting a job at an aquarium in Canterlot. That's where she met Doodlebug, who quickly became her closest friend. To be honest, Sal would have very much liked Doodle to be something else to her as well... but she was much too shy to do anything about it. She just pined in silence. It got so much worse when Doodle asked if she wanted to rent and apartment together; they could even get one with a room just for their terrariums and aquariums! Sal likes to torture herself, and said yes. They worked and lived together for years, until Magifaunia announced that they would open. Sal really wanted to switch jobs --while the aquarium had amphibians, Magifaunia would feature salamanders which, well, that's exactly what she got her mark for! Not to mention all the other magical animals! It was just such an exciting opportunity. But she still hesitated; Doodle had been made head of her department during their years there, and Sal wasn't sure if she'd be up to leaving. Sal could leave by herself, but... Her dilemma got solved by Doodlebug telling her about this cool new zoo she'd read was going to open, and asked if Sal wanted to come with her and see if they still had positions to fill? Keeps her mane and tail just short and unstyled as a buck you to her family. It also helps when you're working with creaures that can lit themselves on fire. She's a great cook --her aunt didn't let her help out around the house as much as she wanted to, but cooking was one thing her aunt was awful at. So Sal took over the kitchen, and learned how to cook from books, what little her aunt did know, and just, experimentation. She even managed to not set the kitchen on fire even once! On her free time, she likes to go hiking in the woods and cliffs outside of the city. She's also an amateur birdwatcher; she sometimes gets lost on her hikes, wandering off into the woods, following birdsong. ----- Doodlebug Head Keeper & Animal Curator of "Critters and Crawlers" A quagga whos family moved to Equestria long before she was born --her father's parents made the move when he was a toddler, and her mother's side... just plain don't know how many generations ago they arrived. The story goes that they moved there even before Celestia came to power, but Doodle isn't sure if that's just something her ancestors made up to sound impressive. Born and raised in the center of Canterlot, it took quite a while for her to find her talent for studying insects -- she didn't even step a hoof in nature until she was twelve. Even then it wasn't until her later teens, when she realised she was a trans mare, that she gained her symbol. That is not nearly always how it happens, but she feels it makes sense for her personally --Special Talents are about you realising what makes you you, and she hadn't fully until that point when the last piece fell into place in her mind. After gaining her symbol she changed her name to fit her special talent better. She also quickly became a bit obsessive with said special talent. Spending weeks by herself out in the nature around Canterlot, studying insects. Until her family came and dragged her back to civilization, giving her a pet tarantula as an incentive to make her not go frolicking through the woods for days on end. Doodle told them spiders aren't insects, but eh, close enough. From there, her family of pets grew, starting with a stick insect, then a praying mantis, a rhinoceros beetle, a burrowing cockroach... when she was starting university she opted to stay living at home just because moving out ment trying to move all the terrariums. After she finished her studies, she started working at an aquarium in Canterlot --which also featured an exhibit of insects and arachnids. A year in, a new pony --named Salamandra-- was hired and Doodle quickly found herself spending a lot of time with the mare. She was kind, funny, had roughly the same interests as Doodle, and was just downright adorable! Sal became her best friend, and eventual roomate. Doodle loved them living together, as every night became hangout night, they could bond over their pets, and honestly, Sal was just way out of her league when it came to cooking. Boy, Doodle sure feel lucky to have such a great friend and roommate Few years later, she saw an article in the paper about a zoo for magical creatures that was set to open. That sounded like something Sal would really enjoy --Doodle quickly ran home to tell her right away, hoping to see her good friends adorable way of lighting up when presented with good news. Cannot speak any languages other than Equestrian --which a lot of ponies (and some zebra) just doesn't seem to get, much to her annoyance. It was especially prevalent during her secondary school -- No, classmate A, she cannot tell you how to "swear in zebra", because there are well over a thousand different languages spoken by zebra and she speaks zero of them! ...wait, actually, no she does speak one language spoken by zebra, and she'd love to tell you a swear in it, but she doesn't want to get detention. (Though, since Kinyume can speak the main language spoken in the country Zecora's from, she's offered to teach it to Doodle if she wants. She's... not sure yet) Due to her being a quagga, she is quite a bit taller than the average pony, will bark when scared (as opposed to a pony's whinny) and, most importantly, she has a Stripe Symbol rather than a Cutie Mark --which also means she can gain multiple Symbols, something which is impossible for Cutie Marks (aside from some very rare illnesses and conditions). Gaining enough of a connection to and understanding with her insects to gain a secondary symbol has been her dream since she gained the first one, and she has somewhat made it her life goal. Is an absolute baby when it comes to dealing with weather --a single degree hotter and she starts to groan about it while chugging ice drinks, a smidge colder brings out her winter clothes. Rain requires an oilskin and umbrella, any measure of ice needs studded shoes... which makes it a bit hard sometimes to help with animals that require every environment possible, from tundra to volcano. She sucks it up for her work, but the rest of her time is free game for complaining. ----- Temperate Temperament Weather Manager A perfectionist to the bone, he had a hard time keeping a job as a weather worker due to taking so long to set everything up that by the time he was done, the schedule had already moved on. The weather bureau tried to make it work, shuffling him from area to area and job task to job task -- until he gave up and quit. His wife and he had been planning to start a family anyway, so they decided to have him be a stay-at-home dad for a few years until their child could start school. During this time though, he encountered a very annoying pink mule, who refused to take a hint and leave him alone. ...He'll concede that the younger stallion was somewhat less annoying than other ponies he'd met, if by nothing else, the virtue of keeping their interactions brief and then rushing off. He was also very helpful by telling Temperate about the new zoo that was slated to open. Temperate wasn't planning on applying for the position of weather worker there --after all, why would it go better this time? But the younger stallion was insistent --apparently he knew the owners?-- so Temp begrudgingly applied. Apparently the colt had more influence than Temparate knew, because he quickly got hired... as the weather manager for the whole thing. He thought there'd been a mistake first, but no; the owners said he had very good references who'd said to put him in this position. ...Just what was that mule thinking? He was thinking correctly apparently, because Temparate flourished in the position. Magical creatures from all over the world has very specific needs regarding habitats and climates: his perfectionist nature was just what the zoo needed to keep track of and ensure the health and happiness of its inhabitants. And being in a managerial position, most of his duties involve planning and keeping up with supply and demand. No need to keep to tight deadlines getting in the way of perfection when you can plan everything moons in advance! Very aloof and private. Refuses to talk about non-work related stuff with any of his coworkers. The only ones who even know his wife's name are Dust Bunny and Kinyume, and that's because she's listed as his emergency contact. Full time job + Small child + Perfectionist = Drown him in coffee please ----- Vermin Chaos Wrangler Getting your mark is usually one of the happiest days in pony's life. And at first, that was true for Vermin as well! Sure, he didn't quite understand what the mark meant --after the bridge had broken, it had appeared in a flash as he stepped onto the shore-- but he was so happy to have finally gotten it. Until he returned home that is; his parents recognized a rat king when they saw one. But how do you tell your child their mark is a symbol of upcoming disasters? They didn't, but he quickly figured it out after things around him started to go south --things breaking as he walked close, a fire starting in the park as he took a walk, lightning striking the town square after he'd arrived. After his mom broke her leg falling off a ladder when he walked under it, he ran away as far from other ponies as he could, into a nearby forest. At first it went well; a lot less bad luck seemed to happen to him out in nature! But it didn't last, as the running of the leaves left the trees bare and him to be spotted by the pegasi search patrols. Really worried about what he'd do next, his parent's kept a close eye on him and tried to get him into therapy. It didn't work very well, as he refused to speak during sessions and withdrew more and more as accidents seemed to pile up around him. The tipping point for his parents was when he returned home from school one day, showing the paperwork he'd filed to change his name, as is very common for ponies to do when they get their mark --he'd changed it to Vermin. Now really really extremely worried, they decided to ask for a different kind of professional help. The local newspaper had written an article a few months back about an organization which could help foals gain their Cutie Marks. So, hoping that they could also help with how to deal with existing cutie marks, Vermin's family contacted the Cutie Mark Crusaders --and once they heard the story, they immediately decided to help as best they can. Apparently this sounded similar to one of the first ponies they'd helped understand their talent? So Vermin's family temporarily moved to Ponyville for a while as the CMC tried to understand his special talent and mark. After some time of studying the occurrences around him, having Twilight measure his magical signature as things around him happened (after convincing her that, no, this was not another Pinkie Sense scenario), and even asking Discord for help, they finally figured out that his special talent wasn't causing disasters, it was him being drawn to chaos. He didn't make the bridge collapse, he was just instinctively drawn to the chaos it would cause as it fell. He was also drawn to non-disaster chaos, like when the CMC set up the primary school to have a paint-balloon war. And you know, Discord, just in general. It just happens that in an orderly society, most of the chaos he encountered was things breaking or ponies panicking. That's why less disasters happened around him when he ran into the woods --nature is a lot more chaotic just by existing, so he wasn't pulled as strongly towards other specific instances of chaos. This changed everything for him. Once he actually understood how everything worked, he got better at being able to tell when he was being pulled towards chaos. And turns out, being able to tell where chaos is about to happen can be really really useful --as he discovered when he suddenly felt like going to the Friendship Castle's kitchen, realised that was odd, and galloped there as quickly as he could, shouting warnings along the way --Rainbow Dash heard him and went on ahead. It was a good thing she did; the stove had been forgotten and caught fire, and she got there just in time to put it out before it got too big. The disasters happening weren't his fault. And he could help prevent them. Nothing good that doesn't have just a little bit of bad in it though. Discord thought a unicorn being attracted to chaos was hilarious, and he to this day sometimes pops in to make something really chaotic but harmless happen, just to mess with Vermin. Well, to be fair, he also does try to give advice afterwards on how Vermin could have handled the situation differently, which has even been useful once or twice in different situations. Though, to be not fair, his advice just as often is to just let the chaos happen and asking why Vermin was such a spoilsport. After the revelation they stayed for just a few more moons, before moving the family back home. Vermin managed to finish secondary school, and became an almost perfectly functional adult! Hooray! ...Now what? What kind of job can you get by being attuned to chaos? He drifted for a bit, unsure of himself. Until he got a letter; a new zoo for magical creatures had just opened, and uh... Discord kinda let a bunch of his creations loose, claiming that they wanted more attention than he wanted to give them, and they were the most magical creatures of all anyway. The owners had managed to, somehow (it had apparently taken something called the stare?? Vermin had no idea what they were talking about), convince him to set up an enclosure for them, rather than just letting them go wherever and scare and attack ponies. But now they needed someone to care for the things, and Applebloom had referred them to him. Please help? He went, got the job, and now spends his days trying to make chaos be at peace with ponies and vice versa. He also sensed upcoming chaos on several occasions; preventing a kid from throwing chocolate to the manticores, giving warning against an upcoming wild storm, and keeping a pony from trying to go into the Storm Grouse enclosure. (He still kept Discords advice in mind though, and didn't stop the visiting schoolchildren from having a foodfight in the picnic area --some chaos is healthy after all. He just made them clean it up afterwards). Magifaunia, who has a vested interest in not having disasters happen with or around their extremely dnagerous magical animals, are very very glad they hired him. Due to spending such a long time believing he caused bad luck, he now habitually adorns himself with anything and everything he believes causes good luck. Two earrings in the shape of a ladybug and an eight, a four-leaf clover necklace, cold iron nailed-on shoes, and two mane-bands adorned with silver and gold coins. Oh, and two rabbit-feet, still attached to a rabbit. Vermin got Lucky the Lop-eared Rabbit as an emotional support animal when he was still a kid, and the now elderly bunny provides both a feeling of luck (with her aforementioned feet) and just general stability and comfort to the nervous pony. The title was a joke which became official, just because they couldn't think of anything else that described it better when they filled out the paperwork ----- A small wiggly jump of happiness Head Keeper of the Lagomorph-exhibit Originally moving out of her family warren to live in Canterlot because she wanted to find a whirlwind romance with a nice stallion. It was a bit hard at first; xenosexual ponies aren't that common. While she was looking she still needed to eat, so she found a job in a pet store. She liked the work ok she supposed; customers were a mixed bag, and while caring for the birds and bunnies was really fun, the cats were just a bit scary, and dogs... were weird. But she still loved working there, because it's how she met her prince charming. He arrived through the door, the light cascading through his short locks of thick mane, the wind blew his sweet scent into the store and his eyes glittered as he looked at her. He then crashed into a display. Yeah, her coltfriend-later-husband was a bit of a dork, but they were happy together. She worked at that shop for many many years, even moving into a managerial position, until it eventually had to close. As she was job hunting, she stumbled across the news of magifaunia's opening, and applied for a job. She didn't quite have the education needed for any of the positions they needed to fill... but her extensive work experience with smaller animals made them hire her anyway, with the provision that she'd take the necessary classes. So she spent some months getting paid to study and catch up to the requirements, after which she got responsibility for the four types of rabbit-composite creatures that the zoo has. All of this has made her extremely loyal to the zoo, and she's even turned down a few competing offers that would give better pay and conditions. The reasoning for her long name is that her actual name is very much unpronounceable for ponies. Not to mention, impossible to write with their limited alphabet. And while that wasn't that much of a problem --her documents are just filled out in the Diamond Dog's language and alphabet-- the pronunciation is. Her friends would like to be able to mention her, and no matter how much a pony tries --those chest rumblings combined with nasal-whine just isn't going to happen. So she tried to find what her name would be translated... and turns out Equestrian does not have an equivalent word. Fine, if pony language is so limited, they deserve to have to say all that and write 27 letters each time. She lets her friends call her "Hop" though. She's kind like that. Her and her husband are currently trying to adopt a child, as ponies and diamond dogs cannot reproduce together. It goes not that great; the waiting time is quite long, and the ponies making the decisions on placements have a tendency to be prejudiced --why place a foal with a diamond dog and pony couple, when you can place them with the next only pony couple on the list? Surely that's what's best for the foal, after all... ----- Bearhugs Veterinarian From Manehattan originally, he lived with his parents who were both toymakers --the best kind of profession a kid's parents can have really, maybe only matched by candymaker. They first assumed he'd walk in their hoofsteps; the day he, as a not-yet-schoolaged colt, borrowed their thread and needle and fixed up an old stuffed bear he'd found, they were so proud. He continued to help with stuffed animals as he started first primary school and even into secondary school. Repairing seams, refilling stuffing, sowing together from patterns and eventually making his own patterns --they were actually baffled that his mark hadn't appeared yet. But then... a wild storm came rushing in from the sea. He'd been enjoying the fresh air as he sewed a small stuffed mouse and took shelter in an abandoned building, not daring to try and make his way home until the weather workers had gotten the storm under control. And inside that building, there was a cat. An injured cat, a very badly injured cat, with a huge wound in its side. He didn't know what to do --he would take it to a vet, but there was a storm outside. He didn't have enough cloth to bandage it with, the mouse was much too small, he only had... he had a spool of thread and a needle. ...Isn't that what they do? Sow the injury up? It's not that different from fixing a ripped seam... After he gained his mark, he moved to Canterlot to go to university there, and just stayed afterwards. He has spent many many years working as a vet, seeing animals from all shapes and sizes enter and leave his practise, including magical ones --though he's fairly certain none of his courses included anything like how to make a basilisk vomit up a fork it'd swallowed. But, eh, he figured it out. He was actually headhunted by Magifaunia as one of the only vets with some work under their belt who's even touched a magical creature before. He wasn't sure at first --being such a small and new organization, they could not offer him competing pay to his current work. But he eventually decided to go for it anyway; the cause spoke to him, to use a sappy phrase. Though, once he arrived and realised that the people closest to him age-wise, Temperate and Hop, was still about 10 years younger than him? He almost started to regret his choice. He can't help but feel so tired, seeing all these young adults running around like hyped up rabbits. Then he realised he sounded like a grandfather, shouting at younglings to get off his lawn. Now he tries his best to just roll with it: he's not that old yet, darnit. Keeps his front fetlocks trimmed --it's pretty hard to cram his hooves into the slim medical boots otherwise. His back fetlocks can do whatever that want though. Currently engaged in a minor war with Temperate; it started when he flirted with the stallion a bit, and Temperate quickly shut that down --he's happily married, thank you very much! Teddy tried to lighten the mood and joked that Temparate had two wings, which... bad call. Now, Teddy's office always seems to be just a bit too warm or too cold no matter what he does. His relationship with Kinyume is a bit odd. Since she functions as both owner and manager of the entire zoo, and as his Veterinary Technician. So simultaneously, she's his boss and he's her boss. They usually deal with by just going on context --the general care of the animals, her word goes. If it's their health and veterinary care, his word goes. Though, after enough times of them having conversations like: "Go prepare X for Y" "Yes boss. Oh, and I just remembered, meet me in my office when you have time tomorrow, we need to discuss the budget for the next season" "Sure thing, boss. Now, please fetch Z" "On it boss" -- They just always call each other "Boss" now, regardless of place and context. He has no life partner --by choice, he's a bachelor through and through, never planning on settling down with anyone. He doesn't mind at all spending some time with cute ponies, going on a few dates and such; it's just that long term commitment isn't really his style. And let's just say, he would not be taken by surprise at all if a brown foal showed up on his doorstep claiming to be his.